State v. Alexander, s. 50012

Citation233 So.2d 891,255 La. 941
Decision Date30 March 1970
Docket Number50013,Nos. 50012,s. 50012
PartiesSTATE of Louisiana v. Claude ALEXANDER.
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana

Charles H. Finley, Arnaudville, William E. Logan, Jr., Lafayette, for appellant.

Jack P. F. Gremillion, Atty. Gen., William P. Schuler, Asst. Atty. Gen., Bertrand De Blanc, Dist. Atty., Charles R. Sonnier, J. Nathan Stansbury, Asst. Dist. Attys., for appellee.

McCALEB, Justice.

Claude Alexander and Lee Perry Pratt were originally indicted by the grand jury for the Parish of Lafayette for having committed the crime of aggravated rape on September 4, 1967. However, following a hearing and disposal of certain motions and pleas prior to trial, the judge granted a severance at the behest of Pratt and, thereafter, the District Attorney pursuant to Article 705 C.Cr.P. filed separate indictments against each defendant. Alexander entered a plea of not guilty. After trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty without capital punishment and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He has appealed, relying upon the following bills of exceptions, 1 for a reversal of his conviction. Some of these bills are common to those reserved by Lee Perry Pratt, who has also appealed and whose conviction has this day been affirmed. See State v. Pratt, 255 La. 919, 233 So.2d 883, No. 50,014 of our docket.

The record reveals the following facts: About midnight on September 3, 1967, a sixteen year old girl accompanied by her date, Carl Arleth, Jr., an eighteen year old young man, after visiting various places of amusement in Lafayette, Louisiana, went to Girard Park where they decided to stop for a few minutes. While walking in the vicinity of the park lake, they were accosted by two young Negores, Claude Alexander and Lee Perry Pratt.

These two men informed the couple that they ahd a gun and grabbed Arleth, robbing him of $4.00. One of the men then assaulted the young girl who began screaming and fighting him off. At that time the other man struck Arleth, knocking him down and, as he lay on the ground, Alexander and his companion assaulted the girl, telling her that she had better do what they wanted or they would shoot both her and her boyfriend. The two men tried to tear off her clothes and succeeded in pulling off her girdle and underwear. Then Alexander had sexual intercourse with the girl while his companion helped to hold her down and quiet her. Following this, the companion had sexual intercourse with the girl while Alexander held her down. This procedure was again alternated. At that point, the girl had only her bra and dress on, but Alexander pulled off the dress and grabbed her by the wrists, dragged her on her bare skin across the blacktopped street for a distance of 185 feet and dumped her into the coulee which was eleven feet deep. About this time she blacked out and Alexander then went down into the coulee and again began having sexual intercourse with her. They were lying in the coulee at the entrance to a large concrete culvert across the road and, while Alexander was having sexual relations with her, the City Police came upon the scene. Two officers, Sidney Broussard and Patrolman John Broussard, were in the patrol car when Sidney Broussard noticed someone running in the coulee. He stopped the car, got out and spotted his light within the coulee where he saw Alexander lying in a prone position on top of the girl. Upon being discovered, Alexander got up, zipped the fly of his trousers and entered the North end of the culvert right next to where he had been lying. The other officer then ran to the other end of the culvert. At this time Officer Sidney Broussard loudly called on Alexander to come out. Upon the latter's failure to do so, the officer fired a shot on the side of the culvert into the ground. Then Alexander came out on the North end of the culvert and was placed under arrest by the officers who had him lie on the ground face down. At this time the girl was screaming and began climbing the banks of the coulee, and Sidney Broussard went to her assistance. When he did so, Alexander got up and fled. The officers followed him in close pursuit and finally apprehended him.

The first bill presented by defense counsel for our consideration is designated in the record as Bill of Exceptions No. 10 and was taken to the overruling of Alexander's motion to quash the indictment. This bill is similar to Bill of Exceptions No. 2 in State v. Pratt, supra, and, for the reasons hereinafter stated and those given in the Pratt case, we find the complaint to be without merit.

The grounds advanced for quashing the indictment are:

'(1) That citizens who are females were systematically excluded from the Grand Jury list and venire and from the Grand Jury as empaneled.

'(2) That citizens of the Negro race were included in the Grand Jury list, and Grand Jury venire, in such small numbers as to constitute only a token, having no relationship to the number of citizens of the Negro race as compared to the number of citizens of the Caucasian race in the general population in the Parish of Lafayette and in the Fifteenth Judicial District of the State of Louisiana.

'(3) That the indictment found by the Grand Jury is defective for failing to inform the accused, Claude Alexander, of the facts and circumstances necessary to constitute the alleged crime of aggravated rape.

'(4) That the indictment * * * is invalid and illegal and should be quashed because said indictment was returned by a Grand Jury empaneled from a Grand Jury venire made up contrary to the provisions of Amendment V, Amendment VI, Amendment XIV and Amendment XV of the Constitution of the United States of America.'

It is obvious, from a mere reading of the grounds above set forth, that the objection stated in paragraphs one and three are clearly without substance. It is well settled that the fact that women do not appear on a general venire list for jury duty furnishes no cause for quashing an indictment in view of Article 402 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. See also State v. Comeaux, 252 La. 481, 211 So.2d 620; Hoyt v. State of Florida, 368 U.S. 57, 82 S.Ct. 159, 7 L.Ed.2d 118 (1961); and State v. Pratt, supra, this day decided. And the claim in paragraph three that the indictment is defective in that it fails to inform defendant of the nature and cause of the accusation against him is likewise not well founded. The accused is charged under the short form provided in Article 465 C.Cr.P., and this form has many times been held sufficient to satisfy constitutional requirements. State v. Barksdale, 247 La. 198, 170 So.2d 374, and cases there cited.

The main contention under the motion to quash is that Negroes were included in the grand jury list and general venire in such small numbers as to constitute only token representation and, thus, warrants the conclusion that they were systematically excluded by design because of their race from grand jury service.

The question of purposeful inclusion or exclusion of members of a race from jury service is manifestly one of fact, and the burden rested with defendant to establish his claim. See State v. Mack, 243 La. 369, 144 So.2d 363, and cases there cited. In assuming this burden, defendant called to the stand the registrar of voters and the clerk of court, who is also member of the jury commission.

The testimony of these witnesses, particularly that of the clerk of court, as we have found in State v. Pratt, this day decided, does not support counsel's contention for, after reviewing the evidence in the case, we declare:

'The fact that the Grand Jury included no members of the Negro race is, in our opinion, a matter of coincidence and not purposeful exclusion. As stated supra, the composition of the general venire was indiscriminate; the names of the Grand Jury venire were drawn from the general venire. It follows that race was not a factor in selection. See Article 411, Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure.'

In view of the finding in the Pratt case, it would be superfluous to discuss in detail the evidence upon which our conclusion rests. Suffice it to say that the evidence shows that the general venire list of 400 names contained the names of 25 Negroes, a circumstance which lends support to the testimony of the clerk of court that the venire list was chosen from the card index without reference to race. Furthermore, the fact that the 20 names drawn by lot from the general venire to comprise the grand jury venire for the court term, during which defendant was indicted, contained the name of only one Negro cannot be regarded as an indication that Negroes were systematically excluded from grand jury service in the absence of a showing that over the years a pattern has been established whereby only a token number of Negroes has been selected to serve on grand juries in Lafayette Parish. For, without some evidence of this sort, there is no sound basis for rejecting the testimony of the clerk of court (who, incidentally, was the only member of the jury commission consisting of five persons called by defendant to testify), that the general venire of 400 names was selected without consideration of race, color or creed.

Bills of Exceptions Nos. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 are interrelated and treated as one in the briefs of defendant and the State. Bills Nos. 18, 19 and 20 were taken when the court ruled, over defense counsel's objection, that the State could exhibit to Officer Sidney Joseph Broussard, Jr., certain photographs of the victim and her escort, Carl Arleth, showing cuts, scratches and abrasions on their bodies on the day after the rape. Also, the officer was permitted to identify a photograph of the defendant. And Bills 21, 22 and 23 were reserved when the judge permitted these photographs to be shown Auxiliary Patrolman John Broussard for his identification of the defendant, the victim and her escort.

Defense counsel contends that these photographs were used by these...

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